With just 37 days until I get my hands on those keys things have stepped up a notch in the preparations. You may remember that we had already survived round one of the sofa delivery debacle, which gave us a grand total of 3 pieces of furniture (we already own a guest bed). We needed, and indeed still need, more. So at the weekend we ramped up the purchasing. Our tally so far:

• One sofa and armchair - already ordered for delivery the week after we get the keys... hopefully.
• One bed, boxspring - ordered to be delivered the day after we get the keys.
• One quilt, we already have pillows
• One DVD player - which may or may not be on its way to the UK depending on whether the Company sent it to my delivery address or my billing address. Their confirmation e-mail was unclear on this point and they have been incredibly silent since I asked for confirmation and provided them with a copy of the order. Am I to be cursed by deliveries?
• One desk chair with a E50 discount as it is the end of the line (hurrah, I would have bought it full price anyway).
• One set of Bemz covers for the, as yet, unbought dining chairs.

Which, I am sure you will agree, is progress. We have also:

• decided on a coffee table. An "opium table" rather like this one, but in natural wood, unless I change my mind and go for the dark stained wood, or the natural...

We have also chosen a television. And when did televisions get so expensive? I mean, really? We are not a tv watching household, more of a dvd boxset sort of a watching household. It galls me to spend this much money on something we don't use that much, but I have aesthetic issues. I simply cannot have a large lump of black plastic and glass as the focus of the room, so the television had to be as unobtrusive as possible while still being of a decent size to watch (which for the lovely husband seemed to mean 32 inch). The most unobtrusive I could find was a Samsung with a white surround, rather than black, however, it was way over my tentative budget. I just couldn't go there. Rather than bitch and whine about it (as I usually would), I took matters into my own hands and hit the internet. Having discovered it relatively cheaply in the UK and Germany I quickly worked out that no company would ship it due to size. Which meant hunting around the internet in Dutch.

I don't know what your experiences of buying online from Dutch companies have been like but my limited experience has left me frustrated and vowing never to do it ever again. It may be just my impression but online shopping has not really advanced here the way it has in the UK. The process is slow and complicated. One order required a bank transfer as a payment system rather than the more simple, plug in your credit card and away we go. Still, the lure of a cheaper product was too much for me and I hit the internet with a vengance. I started off with www.kelkoo.nl, a pricing website, to familiarise myself with the stores which stocked the tv I wanted. That worked well and I found it much cheaper at www.bestekeus.nl. It was still quite a lot though, so I pondered on it for 24 hours and tried again. This time I went to a dutch pricing site, www.beslist.nl who had a greater range of shops. The cheapest option on there was www.plasmadiscounter.nl. Joy of joys, they accept cards, no bank transfer hassle and they also promise to match the cheapest price you can find the product at. Hurrah. I am a happy bunny (well, as happy as a bunny still spending too much on a television can be). I'll let you know how the delivery goes. Maybe third time's the charm.

We have no furniture. We moved to the Netherlands into furnished accommodation and stayed that way. Now that we have bought Number Seventy Five we need furniture. Quite a lot of it. Which is fine. When we decided to buy a place we sat down and worked out what we would need and how much it would probably cost. The money is put aside (no credit cards for us) and we are eagerly awaiting our spending days.

Early on we knew we wanted to splurge on key pieces. By splurge I mean get great deals on things we liked. In the Netherlands it can take up to 12 weeks to get furniture from purchase to delivery so we began our research early. We found a good promotion on the sofa and armchair w wanted which reduced the price by 800 Euros. To good to miss we talked to the firm and were told that if we ordered now and paid a deposit we would get the promotion price and they would deliver it in July when we move in.

Fantastic, we thought, and handed over the deposit. I knew it had been too easy.

Last week both the Husband and I had missed calls on our phones and voicemails asking us to call about our sofa. A sense of impending doom commenced.

Today I had the following conversation with the furniture company.

Me: Hello
Sofa Person (SP): $MyName? This is $Furniture Company about your sofa.
Me: Ok
SP: Your sofa is ready. We would like to arrange delivery
Me: I don't need the sofa until July. I don't want it delivered now.
SP: Sorry?
Me: I ordered the sofa to be delivered in July, not now.
SP: Oh, but, oh. Well you need to pay for it in full in week 27
Me: When is week 27? What date?
SP: and then it will be delivered to (name of storage place, can't remember) and you will be charged 10 Euros a week for storage.
Me: No.
SP: Sorry?
Me: I ordered the sofa in February, during a promotion with the agreement that it would not be delivered until the week commencing 13th July. We were not told at any point that we would have to pay for storage.
SP: Well the store should have told you.
Me: Well they didn't. I wouldn't have bought the sofa in February on promotion if I was going to be charged storage fees.
SP: Well it is company policy.
Me: That is not my problem. We were not...

SP starts talking

Me: No. Stop. I am telling you now that we were never informed of this. We ordered a sofa for the week commencing 13th July. We were told that we would be contacted in June to arrange delivery. I would like my sofa delivered in July. I am not paying for storage.
SP: The shop should have told you, they made a mistake.
Me: Yes, but I didn't make the mistake. I am your customer, it is not my responsibility to know your company policy, it is your store's responsibility.
SP: But my order book is not open for July. It is too far in advance.
Me: Well why don't you call me back in June?
SP: Uh... um... ok, so I call you back in June?
Me: Yes. Call me back in June *big huge sigh*. Goodbye.

This is just the first piece of furniture. This does not bode well.

In Amsterdam, more than any other city I have lived in, getting to Ikea is a breeze. There are several in the Netherlands and two easily accessible by public transport from Amsterdam.

Yesterday I headed out there with the intention of picking up some fabric for bag making and also to have a better look at some of the furniture pieces we are considering without the weekend crowds or the reluctant husband.

The fabric section was an absolute goldmine. The off cuts bin was overflowing with useful pieces, most of them quite large and nearly all for under one euro, including a three metre long piece of hemmed fabric for 70 cents which will be our new table runner. I have been wanting to try out lining bags with plain canvas instead of fusible interfacing for a while and in Ikea you can cut as much as you want for E4.50 a metre.

My best bargain, however, came from the "as is" section right before the cash desks. When we first moved into our current rental we needed a spare bed but due to space constraints we knew a sofa bed would suit us better. We chose the Beddinge in Sandvik Green and put on the best mattress primarily for the comfort of our guests but also incase we ever had to use it as a bed or sofa for a period of time ourselves.

When we move to No.75 it will remain a spare bed but it is going to be in a room with a wall of windows and will also be nice to slump on for reading when the weather is not quite nice enough to sit outside. While scouring the bargain bin yesterday I saw a cover for the square arm cushions (which we had eschewed previously due to them being 26 Euros each). Hmmm, I thought, if I can find another one I'll get them. And, lo, after a bit of digging another one was unearthed. Having tracked down the cushion fillers (vacuum packed foam, how practical) I thought I better check how much they were discounting the covers for (the fillers are 7 Euros and the covers are normally 19 Euros). The tag in the first one said 15 Euros, not great but a saving is a saving. The other one, however, said 2.50 Euros, which happily Ikea matched.

Yes! *Happy Dance*

So two arm cushions for 18 Euros, less than the cost of one cover.

And here they are, assembled and looking pretty in the spare room.

I also got to get a look at the new garden furniture (as featured on Apartment Therapy here).

I couldn't get up close and personal with anything as it was all still in construction phase and roped off but what was out was very good looking.

I really think that the low lounge furniture

 

Image courtesy of Apartment Therapy

 

could work on the roof terrace. The cushions were extremely thick and the colour of the furniture is more of a milky caramel than it seems in the photo. With a few brightly patterned cushions and a couple of throws I think it could have potential.

 

Ikea, Love.